AOWL Magazine - Final Edition

[Certain]

Season 2, Edition 13, Playoff Round 4

INTRODUCTION





Get it? (Pan)Cake(Brah) vs. Frank (not Sinatra). We're here. It's here. This was the rematch that the people wanted, the beef that has consumed the topical side of Netcees.co over the past two months. Daniel Thomas was a bust, but this pairing should explode the Internet. This magazine will attempt to make sense of what's coming while weighing in on how it came to this. We have a review of the past, a preview of the future and a breakdown from the masses.

According to the Internet, the above photo is of a pancake wrapped around a frankfurter. I would eat that.

ROAD TO GLORY


How PancakeBrah reached the title match





Week 1: Signed out. (0-0)

Week 2: Lost to King Ra. 5-3. (0-1)
In a battle that was a great example of the value of brevity, King Ra. edged PancakeBrah because he wrote the more entertaining verse to the topic of Joe Namath's "When you win, nothing hurts." PancakeBrah wrote an emotionally resonant verse about a pretty white girl, while King Ra. wrote a thriller about a samurai.

Week 3: Signed out. (0-1)

Week 4: Won via Shogun Dinero no-show. (1-1)
Gamble's no-show was obvious from the minute he signed in, but PancakeBrah wrote 16 solid lines that would have blown him away anyway to the topic of "Salt."

Week 5: Beat breathless 7-0. (2-1)
With a gray block as his topic, PancakeBrah wrote one of the two best verses of the week and crushed unsuspecting breathless, who went with a generic limbo verse. PancakeBrah told the story of a graffiti artist's masterpiece, and everyone agreed he won easily.

Week 6: Won via NYCSPITZ no-show. (3-1)
With the required last line of "Maybe next time, I'll make a right instead of a left," PancakeBrah decided against the obvious storytelling angle and went with a character sketch of a man who never makes unusual choices. It was very good, but I think a full-fledged effort from Totoro would have beaten it.

Week 7: Beat Vulgar 8-1. (4-1)
This heavyweight matchup seemed to let some people down, but I thought both verses were good. PancakeBrah used the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of two men in South Side Chicago in a very literal interpretation, describing their meeting and how the photo ended up being taken. Vulgar went too abstract for most readers, and he lost big as a result. The one vote for Vulgar was from Pent uP.

Week 8 Contender Match: Won via breathless disqualification. (5-1)
breathless posted a lengthy, pretty decent verse the day threads went up, which led me to Google a phrase from his verse. He recycled large chunks of it from an old open mic verse, leading to his disqualification before PancakeBrah even had a chance to write to "Mr. Sandman."

Week 9 Title Match: Won via Frank disqualification. (6-1)
PancakeBrah always knew what he was doing in this battle, which was about a picture with demonic heads circling a person. He wrote a verse about a girl's struggles with drugs and depression, then waited. Frank posted his verse at 2:58 a.m. ET, only to have PancakeBrah post at 2:59. But Frank always edits, and he did just that to the tune of a disqualification by PancakeBrah. The battle would have been a good one.

Week 10: Lost via no-show vs. Vulgar. (6-2)
Thanksgiving came with a wedding to attend the same weekend for PancakeBrah, leading to his no-show. Vulgar wrote a monstrous verse about human independence that came in second in my 20 best verses of the season list.

Playoffs Round 1: Beat YDK 6-(-5).
The topic was "You Must Love Me," which seemed right up the alleys of two writers who enjoy writing love stories. But YDK went with a therapy angle that didn't quite connect, and PancakeBrah did self-parody that absolutely did. Frank voted for YDK, who didn't vote.

Playoffs Round 2: Beat Mr. J 7-(-4).
PancakeBrah really brought it against Mr. J to the topic of a businessman letting out an exhale of happiness. He developed two very complete characters and gave them a good if relatively small-scale story line. Mr. J wrote an ill-connected topical verse that felt more like a stream-of-consciousness ramble but had a few really well-written parts. Even Frank voted for PancakeBrah in a shutout.

Playoffs Semifinals: Won via Diode no-show.
The jokes about PancakeBrah's easy path in this league continued in the tournament. Diode was unable to get to a computer for an hour or two despite having nine days to write. PancakeBrah wrote a tremendous verse, though, and it's difficult to see how Diode would have approached "Take the bull by its horns" better than his tale of a father and son in a nuclear wasteland world.


How Frank reached the title match





Week 1: Won via Genocide no-show. (1-0)
Frank dropped almost nothing after Genocide announced he would not be showing up. The topic was a painting of a whale jumping over a small ship.

Week 2: Lost via no-show vs. Mike Wrecka. (1-1)
Mike Wrecka sent his verse to me by private message, but Frank never posted even after saying he would be in on time. The topic was former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry's "Today, you have 100% of your life left."

Week 3: Beat YDK 7-0. (2-1)
Paul Cézanne's "The Card Players" inspired a pretty solid battle, but Frank ran away with it. He told the story of a prison card game gone wrong. YDK went with the extended metaphor and focused on the cards themselves.

Week 4: Lost via double no-show vs. NYCSPITZ. (2-2)
I'm still not sure what happened here. NYCSPITZ decided to post eight lines, only Frank did the same. And the problem is that the league minimum is 16 lines. So Mike Wrecka decided the right thing to do was to give neither a win for such a short battle. Then Frank posted an epic verse in Open Mic not long after the decision, suggesting he had it written well in advance. It was one of his two or three best verses of the season.

Week 5: Won via Innovator disqualification. (3-2)
Frank was primed to run away with this battle on account of a good but sloppy verse about being in front of a green screen. (The topic was a green square, so this made perfect sense.) But Innovator blatantly recycled an entire verse, and I called him on it after wondering why his verse dealt so little with the topic.

Week 6 Contender Match: Beat YDK 4-3. (4-2)
The longest match of the season by a wide margin came down to an overtime vote from Vividlyvague. Frank wrote 99 lines, telling the story of a boy influenced by his family members who ended up going down the wrong path. YDK wrote 50-plus lines about being an uninspired writer who finds happiness was with him all along. The cynical (and better-written) verse won out, barely, ensuring Frank used the topic, "And we all lived happily ever after."

Week 7 Title Match: Beat Mr. J 8-2. (5-2)
Frank unseated Mr. J two weeks into his championship run in an overall disappointing battle. The topic was a picture of a path in the woods, and Mr. J wrote a vague retelling of the Sasquatch story, while Frank wrote about beetles that destroy forests. Frank's creative approach won over voters, though his writing itself was lacking a bit. This is a perfect example of Frank only writing enough to win most weeks.

Week 8 Title Match: Beat Certain 8-0. (6-2)
In what was the best shutout of the season, Frank blew me out with the best verse of the season. He told the story of a family coming together for Thanksgiving (two weeks before the holiday) through the eyes of a mother overwhelmed by happiness. The topic was "Tearz," and I ran the counterpoint and wrote about being unable to cry.

Week 9 Title Match: Lost via disqualification vs. PancakeBrah. (6-3)
PancakeBrah always knew what he was doing in this battle, which was about a picture with demonic heads circling a person. He wrote a verse about a girl's struggles with drugs and depression, then waited. Frank posted his verse at 2:58 a.m. ET, only to have PancakeBrah post at 2:59. But Frank always edits, and he did just that to the tune of a disqualification by PancakeBrah. The battle would have been a good one.

Week 10: Lost to Vividlyvague 5-0. (6-4)
Frank says he lost this battle intentionally, recycling an old verse that failed to touch on the topic of "Everything on Earth has a purpose." Vividlyvague went with a very interesting creationist and science-fiction angle and clearly won this battle to take a spot in the Core Four.

Playoffs Round 1: Beat patrown 6-1.
patrown could have disqualified Frank for posting a 70-line verse about Nelson Mandela, but he decided to let the voters decide. And the decision was swift. patrown's storytelling was muddled, and his connection to the topic of "Never Change" was unclear as a result. Frank's verse on Mandela was somewhat uninspired but clear and clearly better. breathless gave patrown his only vote.

Playoffs Round 2: Beat Certain 4-3.
I knew going in that my verse would be hit or miss with voters, a more poetic take on the photo of a crying woman that tried to express the emotional destruction of depression. Frank wrote a more traditional verse, about a mother and heroin addict's pain. He connected more with readers and won the battle.

Playoffs Semifinal: Beat Vividlyvague 6-1.
Frank took Vividlyvague to the cleaners with that as the topic. He had a very unique and well-executed verse about a father and ex-cop whose son died because of huffing. The narrative resonance of the verse was lost on at least one voter, as Objective voted (in rhyme form, for some reason) for Vividlyvague. But everyone else liked Frank's verse or didn't like Vividlyvague's attempt at a more poetic approach about a taxonomist.



THE PEOPLE SPEAK





I recently asked for some outsider opinions on what would happen in the championship match and what people thought about the two competitors. Thanks to Vividlyvague, Vulgar, Zenland and ZYG for participating. Their responses have been @parsed here for easier reading.


Who do you think comes out on top?

Vividlyvague: Pancake is the underdog here, as emotional storytelling pretty much kills all other departments of topical writing. I see Pancake doing better technically, with a more eloquent vocabulary and less stubborn scheming, but he would have to somewhat fight fire with fire.

Vulgar: Frank. Pancake drinks a lot of alcohol and will choose to write his verse on one of his queasy nights while reclined on his fraternity friend's couch. Frank writes his verses on the Brooklyn Bridge while he is naked, ***kling and constantly glancing at his watch. Their different environmental approaches will determine the outcome of their battle.

Zenland: This is probably one of the best beefs on nc's, and definitely the most underrated. Frank is the loud mouth who creates a show for everyone to watch play out each week. ... He's Frank. Cake on the other hand is straightforward when it comes to his pieces each week. He'll write 64 lines talking about one moment he had on a date one time four years ago and at the end of you say to yourself, "What did I just read? And why do I like it?" I feel like if you asked Cake if he thought 90 percent of his verses were good he'd be all like, "No. They're just representations of daily life laid out in verse form." But he'd be a lying sack of shit. ... While I'm probably the only person who enjoys Frank's antics, I really hope he plays this one cool and drops a dope ass verse this week. ... (But) Cake likely really wants to win this one and will take it seriously and when he's on he's also damn near impossible to beat. ... I predicted Frank to take it all at the beginning of the season so I'm sticking by it.

ZYG: PancakeBrah .60 - Frank .40.


What's your favorite aspect of PancakeBrah's writing? What must he improve?

Vividlyvague: I love his attention to detail without missing a beat with flow and smooth cadance. He's an experienced writer and it shows well even when he's not at his best. (But) he needs to develop larger scope storytelling. His comfort zone is small settings and safe atmosphere. If Cake can harness the spirit of a great story, Frank will hafta give this everything he's got.

Vulgar: I like his rhyming. He's keen at telling a story through a unique lens provided by his detailed analysis. I think he needs to work on not rushing.

Zenland: No one else writes like him. His rhymes or "schemes" as everyone likes to say doesn't overwhelm me, but instead he allows his writing to carry itself without being hampered down with complexity. That's nice. What should he improve on? Well, whenever I read his verses I imagine William H. Macy from Fargo rappin it. So, idk. Maybe he should move.

ZYG: Refined multiple rhyming. Conceptual approach.


What's your favorite aspect of Frank's writing? What must he improve?

Vividlyvague: His plot will be damn near airtight. He relies deeply on intimate connections between his characters and the reader. He pulls you in with a formal introduction, pampers you with sopporting details, then reveals his prestige climax, which usually isn't a suprise, but once you get that far it almost doesn't matter. (But) his flow is usually pretty simple, as is his cadance, so not to hinder his story delivery. Although this has almost been necessary for his style, his added sloppiness could amount to an achilles heel. He tends to also stretch schemes for long periods, possibly to relieve any extra distraction a series of complicated schemes may become.

Vulgar: I like Frank's tenacity. He's highly driven to win, which gives his writing a highlighted effect. Mostly every verse he writes is cooked admirably, and his subject matter is usually something you don't read everyday. I think he needs to work on the 25% portion of his work that comes out sloppy.

Zenland: Oddly enough Frank's writing style is completely different just like their personalities. Frank has one of the slickest flows on the site, and if he could rap he should record it. Reminds me of an updated version of Slick Rick. ... Or maybe I'm just high? I think he should make new aliases. Like at least five more. And he should drop acid.

ZYG: Emphatic writing voice. Stylistic maturity.



SO, WHO WINS?





Five reasons PancakeBrah will win

1. He's more polished. PancakeBrah writes using his internal perfectionist. He rarely misplaces a word and sticks to schemes and rhymes more closely than Frank.

2. He rhymes better. That's better than anyone, arguably. PancakeBrah uses deep-syllable rhymes often based on unusual words. He pushes himself on this conceit.

3. He's peaking now. PancakeBrah's verse against Diode was his best of the season, and the one before it against Mr. J was one of his top four. He said before the playoffs that he was determined, and he's shown it.

4. He needs to win this. As host, PancakeBrah will not participate in The Winter Topical tournament. So he has two-plus months of not competing. Frank will be a favorite in The Winter Topical, so losing this isn't as big a blow. Plus, Frank won the second season of the Netcees Writing League on the old site, while PancakeBrah's accomplishments belt is light.

5. The voters will change for this. The unique thing about starting The Winter Topical in time that competitors will be able to vote on this match is that it brings in a bunch of open mic writers and veterans who haven't been as active lately. PancakeBrah's style is better fit for that set, while the AOWL regulars seemed to favor Frank's style and gave him a lot of easy wins.


Five reasons Frank will win

1. He's more creative. And this topic requires that. Frank is a bombastic writer, and while his best verses often focus on pretty traditional hip-hop storytelling, he has shown the ability to flip a switch and tell stories about all sorts of things, even beetles.

2. He connects with voters. Frank's hip-hop edge resonates with all of us who have grown up listening to Nas and other rap storytelling greats and got into text rap for that reason. He writes about the common man.

3. He holds up best against more polished writers. Frank's rough-around-the-edges style can be an asset for him because it accentuates his emotional context. He's done very well against more polished writers.

4. He has more experience. Don't underestimate the value of having been there. Frank's been at it on this text rap scene, with varying levels of activity, for more than 12 years. He knows what he's doing. He's seen voting for years. He's proven capable of writing two verses a week.

5. He has the largest chip on his shoulder ever. I'm not even sure why he has it, but he always has, since I first got to know him. He thinks the world is against him, and as a result, he turns the world against him. But he also earns respect because he can write.


Make a fucking pick already

I marked Frank as the favorite before this tournament, but PancakeBrah was not far behind. I figured before the semifinals that this would be the matchup and that the topic would play a major role in deciding the winner. Right now, I'm leaning toward Frank. I think this rapture-themed picture picked by Mike Wrecka will favor him. But I'm giving him a 53% chance of winning, and it's not hard to see PancakeBrah winning this as well. I expect a classic.



CONCLUSION


I want to thank you all for participating in this wonderful season. It's reinvigorated me quite a bit in my return to topical writing, and I plan to lead the third season after The Winter Topical is finished. I wish the best of luck to PancakeBrah and Frank, not that either needs it. And I hope everyone comes back for next season.

[Zen]

You edited my interview. Besides that this was a dope mag. Props to both Cake and Frank as well.

[PancakeBrah]

Underdog role assumed.

Vetwrok.

Holler.

[Fig]

The dope

[Matriarch]

*Grabs popcorn*

[Vulgar]

Cool mag and good luck to both finalists.

[e11even]

Kooky. I'll be back on the day of reckoning.

[Split]

saviour$$$

[Certain]

Originally Posted by Split Eight

saviour$$$

What does this mean?

[Sn00p]

Just wanted to say that y'all are doing a good job with these mags. Props.

[Mike Wrecka]

proppers

[Inno]

Good work...should be a good read

[Certain]

So how many of you would eat a frankfurter inside a pancake?

[Fig]

Drinking an Arizona

[PancakeBrah]

The pancake/frankfurter combination doesn't sound half bad, really. I'd give it a shot.

[Certain]

Pickles on hot dogs are so good.

[Split]

Originally Posted by Fig

Drinking an Arizona

eatin sum skittles

[Fig]

Nika gunnin me down n shit

[Frank]

Hold the applause. Championship match should be 64 lines. Extend it or forget it all together
@Certain

[Certain]

The rules aren't changing for the title match. @PancakeBrah, do you approve a 64-line limit?